Knowledge Management Benchmarks

Knowledge Management is now one of the major driving forces of organizational change and wealth creation. This paper reviews some of the major concepts and approaches as discussed at a recent international congress on the subject. Beginning with an examination of some of the factors propelling the global knowledge economy, the paper then explores knowledge‐based organizational strategy, illustrated by a number of case studies from leading practitioners, including British Petroleum, Glaxo Wellcome, ICL, Nokia Telecommunications, the UK Post Office and Zeneca Pharmaceuticals. The concept of intellectual capital lies at the heart of Knowledge Management. Some companies define intellectual capital in terms of value creation, for others it is value extraction. The two different approaches, illustrated by Skandia and the Dow Chemical Company, are reviewed, along with a new tool for measuring intellectual capital.